Tuesday, September 13, 2011

You might have missed the foofaraw from Sunday night's Mets-Cubs game.

If you recall, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, when baseball restarted the Mets took to wearing caps from the FDNY, NYPD, Port Authority and NY's EMTs. They were initially banned by the league on the grounds they were not uniform caps, but ultimately Major League Baseball relented, and the Mets were allowed to honor the heroes of that day for the rest of the season.

Each year since, the Mets have simply put those caps on for any game played on September 11.

This year...well, let's review the circumstances first. The Mets were playing the Chicago Cubs on national television, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, on the tenth anniversary of the attacks. They requested from the league a dispensation to honor the first responders yet again.

That request was denied. Whether it was a harsh rebuke or merely a reminder, the team went public with its disagreement.

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing